Hours & Info

An Evolution of the E300

Mercedes Benz and other luxury car brands don’t put much focus on fuel efficiency, and their vehicles generally aren’t known for being the most efficient on the market. While that might be true, it’s clear that Mercedes is putting effort into creating more fuel-efficient vehicles, and the mid-level E300 shows this trend to be absolutely true. If you take the time to look back over older E300 models, you’ll see an upward trend in fuel efficiency, to the pretty decent levels that the vehicle sits at today.

A Look at the Models over the Years

1987 – Back in 1987, the 300E got fuel efficiency figures of 18 MPG combined which wasn’t terrible at the time, but certainly wasn’t an impressive figure.

1997 – The 6-cylinder engine on the 1997 E320 managed to offer about 20 MPG combined which was a pretty nice upgrade over the model offered a decade previously. The jump up for fuel-efficiency wasn’t huge, but there was definitely a notable increase.

2007 – The V-6 engine in the 2007 E350 actually took Mercedes in the wrong direction when concerning fuel efficiency figures by bringing the combined level down to 19. This was very close to the model a decade previously, but came with a bunch of other improvements outside of efficiency levels.

2017 – Now in 2017 we take a look at the E300 and it’s current efficiency levels. It manages a major jump up from 19 MPG combined to 25 MPG combined without losing much power or performance at all. That’s thanks in most part to adopting turbocharger technology and using a 4-cylinder engine instead of a 6. The vehicle comes with a 9-speed automatic transmission that’s nice and smooth.

Not the Greatest Efficiency Levels

While it’s obvious that fuel efficiency levels have been going up in the E300 over time, 25MPG still isn’t all that impressive and there is a long list of other vehicles that offer better MPG numbers. That doesn’t mean that the E300 isn’t a good car to buy though. It’s quick, luxurious, comfortable, outfitted with a wide range of tech features, and has a whole lot to offer overall.

If you’re looking for a fuel-efficient vehicle you probably don’t want to go with a Mercedes because that’s not the priority of the brand. With that said, you can still enjoy decent efficiency levels with the 2017 E300, and those levels are likely to continue improving in the future as well, especially as electrification becomes more popular.